The Docks
by PortxStarboard
Summary: Docks are for 'ships', after all... This is what happens when a bunch of college-age TCG players are allowed to date. We're not sure if we can explain it any other way. Join us, as we present what should be going on in real life.


**The Docks**

-Casa Ryan, Early Morning-

"Hello?" a groggy Ryan asks his cell phone. Slowly, he manages to wiggle his way out of the reluctant grasp of his roommate, Michael.

"Who is that?" Michael asks in a displeased tone. Ryan ignores as he continues talking in a higher-pitched voice. "Ryan, come back to bed."

"What was that?" the person on the other side of the phone asks.

"Nothing. I'll be over in a couple minutes. Love you, bye-bye." Ryan says, clicking off the phone. He sits down on the bed with a sigh, turning off his alarm clock. Michael sits up and hugs him from behind. "What now?"

"She wants to pick someone else up, so we have to leave earlier." Ryan says.

"Oh." Michael replies, tired and annoyed. A few moments pass, and the embrace remains; the few more needed for Michael to fall asleep again not coming fast enough.

"I have to get ready." Ryan says, turning around to free himself once again. Michael crawls down onto the bed, watching the shorter one move around in the dark. Tired, though he was, he was not about to take his eyes off of the man. Slowly collecting his things, Ryan makes his way out of the room toward the bathroom. Michael flips to his back, looking up at the ceiling only to let out a sigh and close his eyes.

"Another day." he mutters.

Without another word, he gets up and walks down toward the kitchen. He takes a brief pause at the bathroom before proceeding, shaking his head the rest of the way. In the kitchen, he finds the requirements to make cereal. Sitting down at the counter stools, he pours in the milk and flakes, and begins to eat as the shower unmistakably turns off. Michael looks down the hallway for a moment, sighs again, and then turns back to his cereal.

Ten minutes later, Ryan comes out of the bathroom, dressed all but his shoes. After looking in the mirror one last time, he joins Michael in the kitchen, setting his phone down on the table.

"I made cereal." Michael says. "Want some before you go?"

"We're probably going to get breakfast on the way." Ryan replies, sitting across from the lanky, brown-haired one.

"Okay." Michael says, looking back to his food. The phone on the table buzzes. Ryan picks it up and presses the button required to read his text.

_"Hurry up. 3"  
_"I'd better get going. Oh." Ryan says, quickly getting up, dropping his phone back on the table, and walking back into the bedroom. Michael picks up his phone, reading a selection of his recent text messages. He sighs; locking and setting the phone back down.

"Will you take these to Katie?" Ryan asks, handing over a three-ring binder.

"Sure." Michael says, smiling at him. Ryan smiles back as Michael stands and comes around for a hug. "Love you."

"Love you too, Michael." Ryan replies in the embrace. Letting go, he makes his goodbyes and walks out the door. Michael sits down in the dimly lit living room, curling up on the couch with his phone. He sighs once again, thinking about his friend.

'His friend' Michael repeats in his mind, knowing that it wasn't his idea of a perfect world. Just something he had to accept. Drifting off into sleep once more, Michael lets the phone slip out of his hand onto the floor.

-Casa Andrew, Morning-

The water descends in the shower onto Andrew, who had taken the extra moment to relax in the shower. Across the room his phone starts ringing, getting a sigh out of him. Turning the water off, he grabs a towel and hurries over to the sink.

"Hello?" he asks, picking up his phone.

"Hey!" a voice calls from the other end.

"Good morning, Luke." Andrew replies, putting the phone on speaker so he could dry off. "What are you up to?"

"Just woke up, how about you?" Luke answers.

"I'm naked in my bathroom." Andrew says, all too truthfully.

"Is that an invitation?" Luke half-jokingly offers. Andrew chuckles lightly.

"Not quite."

"But seriously, you wanna hang out today?"

"Yeah, of course." Andrew tells him. "My place or yours?"

"Depends, if I head over now, will you still be naked in your bathroom?" Luke jokes.

"Unless I'm eating breakfast naked in my bathroom, doubtful." Andrew replies. "Come on over when you want; I'll be here."

"See you in a bit." he replies, hanging up.

Andrew finishes drying, wrapping the towel around his waist and crossing the hallway into his bedroom. Rummaging through a drawer, he finds a pair of boxers as well as clothes for the day. He exchanges the towel around him for the boxers, then takes the towel back to the bathroom. Hanging it up over the shower door, he turns to the sink. His phone had been quiet since the call. Grabbing the toothbrush and toothpaste from the counter, he starts to brush his teeth.

_Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-Don-Din-Din-Ding-Dong._

"Damn it, Luke." he says, the doorbell quickly turning into a headache; unassisted by the occasional knocking and shouting in between.

"Hurry up!" Luke calls through the door.

Andrew sighs, taking the toothbrush with him to the door.

"So close." Luke says, coming inside and eyeing his friend's apparel. Andrew makes a face, realizing that he hadn't finished getting dressed.

"Dammit." Andrew says through the toothpaste, turning for the bathroom. Luke is quick to wrap his arm around Andrew's waist. Andrew grunts as the toothpaste begins to burn in his mouth. Luke draws Andrew back against his body, putting his mouth up to Andrew's ear.

"If I'd known you'd be so slow I would've driven faster." Luke whispers as Andrew turns around and pushes himself away. They laugh as Andrew races to the bathroom to spit.

"Not cool." he says, setting the toothbrush down. Luke walks into the bathroom with him, checking the mirror.

"But funny." Luke adds, fixing his hair.

"Touché" Andrew replies. "Alright, I'm getting dressed." he adds, going back to his bedroom and dawning his clothes. Luke sighs.

-Indigo Plateau, Late Morning-

Nykki fumbles about her keys in the cold, trying to find the one that will grant her access to her apartment. At the gate opposite, Michael reaches his hand over the fenced part of the gate to gain access himself.

"Hi Nykki!" he says in a happy tone.

"Michael!" Nykki replies in her usual greeting tone. They meet in the middle of the walkway in front of the door.

"How are you?" Nykki asks, fiddling with the other keys.

"Okay." Michael replies, tone dropping as Nykki picks the right one. Unlocking the door, they find Tyler laying on the couch with Katie in an embrace on top of him sideways.

"Damn foot cramps." Tyler complains, clearly in pain.

"Yes Tyler, foot cramps." Nykki says in mocking. "Last time I checked, sideways involves Katie being the other way." Katie gives a disapproving stare.

"How was your trip?" Michael asks Nykki, dropping his bag and heading into the kitchen to turn on the coffee maker.

"It was good." she replies, taking a seat in the recliner.

"I'm gonna go walk Wesley." Katie says, getting off of Tyler. "Hi Wesley…" she adds, joining the dog in the corner near the door. Wesley barks, looking up at the ceiling. Katie detains him, telling him "No." His warning ignored, a spider the size of a fist continues to descend from the ceiling soon to land on Nykki's shoulder.

"Holy shit." Tyler comments, the first to locate the spider. Nykki looks up at it.

Five minutes later, Katie's cell phone rings; it's her landlord.

"Katie?" David asks.

"…yes." Katie asks reluctantly.

"Some of the other tenants are complaining of a ravenous screaming and pounding noise coming from your apartment. Could you please detain Nykki?" he asks.

"Will do." Katie replies, clicking the call off. "NYKKI!"

The woman in question is inside panicking when Wesley and her return.

"The landlord called, said someone complained of screaming." Katie says. "Know anything about that?"

"Blame the spider."

"Bull shit." Katie replies, putting her phone back in her pocket.

"Blame the spider." Nykki says again, storming into the kitchen for coffee. "You'd better have saved some for me."

"No, none for you." Michael says with a smile.

"Bastard." she replies, pouring herself a cup.

"Ryan gave me a binder for you." he tells Katie as she enters, who returns with a smile. They go to retrieve it, Nykki finding her way back to the recliner. Katie looks through the binder as Tyler looks at his Facebook.

"Ooh, I need that one," says Katie, smiling.

"Katie, Nykki's sitting in my seat." Michael complains, pointing at the girl.

"Nuh-uh," Nykki replies with a strange look.

"My seat," Michael insists, sitting down on top of her.

"Aah, I have coffee you jackass!" she says, stretching her arms out. "You fucking jerk." Michael leans backward, opening his computer on his lap. "Get off me."

"Katie, Nykki just told me to get off." Michael says as Katie buries her face in her hands and laughs. Tyler ignores. Nykki brings the coffee around over Michael's computer.

"Get off of me or I'll spill it" she says adamantly; Michael lurches forward to get up, causing Nykki to drop her coffee on her pants. She lets out a high pitched screech in pain. Katie laughs slightly.

"Shut up!" an angry Nykki shouts from her room as she puts on a new pair of pants. Michael takes a seat abnormally close to Tyler. Tyler scoots over slightly, Katie leaning her head on his shoulder. Michael scans the internet for Pokemon TCG-related updates.

Nykki returns from her room and takes her seat back on the recliner. As she does, she gives Michael an angry face.

"What did I do?" he asks. He can't help but to smile at the girl, who was rather infuriated with him at the moment.

-Approaching Indigo Plateau-

Meanwhile, Charlie was busy riding his bike down the sidewalk. Michael needed one of his cards to scan into the wiki archive, and as Charlie had made lunch plans, he needed to go early. Turning a quick corner, he brushes by a man walking his dog.

"Sorry!" he calls back at the man. The man turns to Joey, perplexed at where the kid with the bike had gone.

"Hey you!" he calls at Joey. Joey turns, confused.

"Yes?"

"Did you see a kid with a bike just now?" he asks.

"Umm…no." Joey replies, looking around. The man looks around, confused himself, then continues off. He takes one last look over his shoulder to see Charlie speeding off into the distance.

"There he is! Ge-" he calls to the very tall man who he had just spoken to; he was nowhere to be found.

"Katie, will you drive me to Wal-Mart to buy the new box?" Michael asks.

"You mean that stupid new box?" Katie asks.

"Yes." Michael says in a quiet voice, poking his pointer fingers together.

"Okay." Katie replies, looking over the room for her keys. Momentarily, they leave, and Tyler follows them out to fetch something from his apartment next door.

Joey arrives at the gate, reaching over the top to turn the handle from the inside, as was commonly done by visitors. He approaches the front door, knocking three times.

Inside, Nykki hears the knocking and stands to unlock the door.

"Charlie!" she says, revealing him in the doorway.

"Hi Nykki." Charlie says, coming inside. Nykki locks the door again.

"Would you like some coffee?" she asks. "I just made a second pot."

"No thanks." he replies as Nykki disappears into the kitchen to pour one for herself. She comes back out with her cup to find Joey standing in the living room. She stops, not immediately recognizing him.

"Oh…Joey. Hi." she says, confused. "Where did…"

"Ooh, is that coffee?" Joey asks.

"Yeah…you want some?" Nykki replies, still unsure.

"Yeah." he says. Nykki returns to the kitchen to pour another cup. Tyler unlocks the door and comes inside.

"Hi Charlie," he says.

"Hey Tyler. I brought this card over for Michael." he says, handing over the trading card.

"I shall see that he gets it." Tyler replies, turning to the table as Nykki reenters the room.

"Here you-" she tries, taken back by Charlie's reappearance.

"Oh, no thanks. I'm good." Charlie says. Nykki shakes her head and walks over to the recliner, passing Charlie and taking a drink from her cup, the other one still in hand.

"Hey, is that mine?" Joey asks, causing Nykki to nearly drop both cups. She immediately turns and looks up at Joey.

"Yeah…stop that." Nykki says, handing Joey the cup.

"Stop what?" Tyler asks turning to Nykki.

"The whole Joey-Charlie…" she stops when she realizes that neither person is in the room anymore.

"Joey? He's not here, is he?" Tyler asks.

"He was here just a minute ago." Nykki insists.

"I don't recall seeing him." Charlie says, coming out from the bathroom. "Oh, Nykki, I found this coffee mug in the bathroom." he adds, handing it to her. She notices that it's the same one she just handed Joey. "Well, I have to go. I'll be back to get my card later."

"See ya' later." Tyler says as Nykki tries her best to figure out what was going on.

-Back Parking Lot, Indigo Plateau-

"Damn it, Jake." Katie complains when she finds that her parking spot had been taken.

"Haven't you told him this before?" Michael asks.

"Too many times." Katie replies, blocking Jake in. They walk to the gate, unlocking it the proper way and walking to the apartment door.

"Oh yeah, I just saw Joey leaving." Jake says.

"I don't even remember seeing him." Tyler replies. "Hi Katie."

"Jake, how many times have I told you not to park in the back parking lot?" Katie complains.

"476." Jake pulls out of his ass. "Shall I add another one?"

"Yes." Katie replies.

"Hi Michael." Jake says, Michael clutching his box with both hands. He walks over to see what it was. "Isn't that the really stupid box you told me about, Katie?"

"Yes."

"It's not stupid" Michael insists, making a face at Jake.

"It might be." Jake replies, pulling Michael and the box into an embrace. Michael quickly squirms to escape.

"Coffee?"

-Casa Andrew-

The rest of the morning was uneventful for Luke and Andrew. They'd been playtesting for a while, now getting ready to walk to lunch.

'Where do you want to go?" Luke asks.

"How about Taco Bell?" Andrew replies, opening the door.

"Bleh. Not really in the mood for it."

"Subway?" Andrew tries again as he shuts the door behind them and descends the stairs.

"Do you work at Subway, because every time I see you I get a foot long." Luke says with the cheesiest grin, turning at the base of the stairs and grabbing Andrew's hands.

"Eheh." Andrew says, managing to escape one hand of grasp. Luke starts walking, dragging Andrew down the sidewalk with him. "Let go." Andrew says, pulling on Luke to stop him. Luke slows down, not letting go, though.

They walk, Luke still pulling slightly. Digit by digit, their fingers begin to intertwine. As the last space is filled, Luke walks in line with Andrew. He shoots him a glance, as if to say 'this isn't so bad, is it?'


End file.
